Just off the wire

Blot Links

With the spectre of Brexit looming and non-stop urging from government and business organisations to 'think global', here's a business that's making a practical effort.

The Links Hotel in Montrose just added sections on their website for Swedish, German and Chinese languages.

The 36-room hotel is already popular with overseas guests and it's hoped this will attract even more visitors and tour operators. It's the perfect place to stay for those who enjoy golfing, fishing, walking, biking, coast activities, and the beautiful area of Angus, Scotland.

Managed by the Blot Content Management system, each language section becomes a 'virtual' website in it's own right. This helps Google and the search engines direct users to the correct pages for their native language.

Continuing a (sort of) political theme, does anyone else find it impossible to get a trustworthy picture of the numbers politicians give us?

We get one figure from someone, then their opponent completely contradicts the figure and its meaning.

Well, someone no less than the former CEO of Microsoft has done something about the problem in the US.

Steve Ballmer hired a bunch of economists and analysts to create a database that contains details of where all US taxes come from and go to. Great for backing up your argument or squashing someone else's - and the article includes some surprising numbers

Could it work in the UK and would it stop our politicians coming up with fabricated arguments?

Wikitribune is a new project to combat fake news from the guy who started Wikipedia.

The aim is to provide a free 'evidence based' news service from journalists and communities. The key is that all the stories must be fact-vetted using sources such as full transcripts, video and audio interviews.

Journalists will be paid and funding will come from the communities of interest who will want stories written about the areas they are involved in.

Possible conflict of interest there? Perhaps, but the journalists will still have to operate independently and show clear evidence of facts.

Wikitribune is currently going through a crowd funding stage to hire the first journalists. Could be interesting.